PNP-SAF hurting from accusations of ‘protecting’ drug lords in NBP

SILENTLY but effectively doing their job specifically in Marawi City where eight of their commandos have already been wounded in fighting Maute terrorists, officers and men of the elite Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police are hurting from accusations of Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III that some of them are already ‘protecting’ jailed drug lords.

“Our troopers are very committed. They act in only one direction and we don’t believe that they would be tempted by any bribe offer. Our records will speak for us but it’s really high time for SAF to be moved out of Bilibid Prison,” said a PNP-SAF official who spoke to People’s Tonight on condition of anonymity.

The official said that the public must realize that ‘we don’t have a hand’ in guarding the entire Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.’ At present, over 400 SAF commandos are working in shift to guard the national penitentiary’s Building 14 and Medium-Security Compound.

Bureau of Corrections guards are the ones assigned to guard inmates housed at the NBP’s Maximum Security compound and Minimum Security Compound. Thus, notorious drug lords previously being held at Building 14 and the Medium-Security Compound who were transferred to the Maximum and Minimum Security Compounds are no longer under the supervision of the SAF troopers.

PNP chief, Director General Ronald “Bato” M. dela Rosa yesterday said that SAF commandos assigned at the NBP may be completely pulled out of the prison facility in the wake of a revelation by Sec. Aguirre regarding the alleged resurgence of the drug trade in the facility.

The country’s top cop said that the SAF unit at the NBP has asked to be recalled from the facility for the sake of preserving its reputation.

He told newsmen at Camp Crame that although the information from Aguirre may be true, the PNP-SAF in reality wants to pull out of the NBP because they do not have complete control of the facility.